


Into Thin Air

by FleetSparrow



Category: Batman (Comics), DCU, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Gen, Implied Relationships, Multiverse, Mystery
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-09-07
Updated: 2014-02-11
Packaged: 2017-12-25 20:55:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/957502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FleetSparrow/pseuds/FleetSparrow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dick Grayson:  The first Robin, the second Batman, the only Nightwing.  He's the guy who knows everyone and everything about everyone, and loves them all anyway.  From the center ring of the circus to the center of the Justice League, the founder of the Titans to the leader of the Outsiders, he's stayed in the spotlight of every life he's led.</p>
<p>But sometimes the spotlight feels too bright.  Sometimes memories can weigh too heavily.  Sometimes you just want to disappear.</p>
<p>And sometimes you don't have a choice to stay.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Little Things

**Author's Note:**

> I was complaining to my mom about how discouraged I am with the modern comics idea that killing someone off is "new and original" instead of being nothing more than just petty shock-value masturbation, and we started talking about better ways to have a big-impact thing happen to characters outside of death/dismemberment/assault. That's pretty much where this came from.

For once, things seemed to be slowing down around the ol' Gotham/'Haven area.  The regular supervillains had been less than enthusiastic about facing the sweltering heat of the day for heists and grand plans.  Arkham at least had air conditioning and that fact alone kept every inmate content to stay right where they were, with only enough posturing to show it was of their own accord and not some special breakthrough of the doctors.  Big crime all over had gone down, leaving space for more petty, heat-induced aggressions.  At this point, it was more dangerous going out as Officer Grayson than as Nightwing, something Dick unfortunately found out the hard way.

Arm injuries always put a damper on any good mood, but it was the kind of thing he could usually cover up with some jokes at work and unadvised extra training at home.  Arm injuries as a result of work in his civilian I.D., however, meant playing out the injury at least the minimum of normal healing time or risk suspicion and questions.  So here he was, trapped in his own apartment, grounded from day-work _and_ night-work, the latter thanks to one suspiciously well-timed call from Alfred as Dick was just about to climb out his fire escape.  He couldn't risk his good arm for anything too much outside of normal use and there were only so many times he could pretend to clean the apartment before he got bored.  A still Dick Grayson was not a happy Dick Grayson.

In fact, it was a very melancholic one.

Focusing on paper cases, less physical, more detectivey-stuff was good for him to keep busy, but not quite good enough for a distraction.  He wanted movement.  Physical activity meant he couldn't think too far away, he couldn't spiral out into bad memories and what-ifs.  Doing paperwork just put his brain into high-gear and that meant bringing up all the little things.

The way he'd yelled.

The sound of the bullet.

The feel of _her_ hands.

Dick scrubbed his hand over his face and groaned, flopping back in his chair.  Clearly, looking at murder cases wasn't doing him any favors.  He stumbled out of his seat, frowning back at it as he made his way toward his kitchen.  "I don't need this kind of sass, chair," he said, growling right before he tripped over the coffee table.  "Don't you start, too, table!"  A peal of hysterical laughter rang out in his mind, slowly choked off the way it had when he'd... when he....

He didn't need this.

Cereal.  Cereal would make him feel better.  Nothing like swirls of sugar mixed with a little bit of grain to pretend you're being healthy.  Bowl of cereal in hand, he curled up on his couch, listening over the League channel to the reports coming in and missions going out.  It hurt a bit, being grounded while things were happening, but at least he was still in the loop.  It wasn't until he was rinsing out his bowl that the darker thoughts came back.  Feelings of helplessness, powerlessness, trapped vulnerable and open.

_Querido._

The clatter of the bowl in the sink brought Dick back to the present.  He was alone, he was safe, and, except for an arm in a sling, he was fine.

Yeah.  He was fine.

He switched frequencies on his comm and headed back to his bedroom, leaving the bowl where it fell.  "Hey, Babs, mind if I swing by the Clocktower tonight?  Been feeling... Just need to talk.  I'll bring take-out.  My treat."

"Wow, livin' large, Boy Wonder.  I'll see you tonight."

He smiled and closed his comm, tossing it on his bedside table as he stretched out for a quick nap.

That was the last anyone heard from Dick Grayson.


	2. No Reply

The summer heat of Gotham never went away once the sun went down. It just became tolerable, instead. Even as high up as she was in the Clocktower, Barbara could still feel the heat radiating up from the streets below. When all the cooling equipment was focused on the computers, it didn’t do nearly as much as it should for the person using them. And no matter who it was, spending all day in that kind of heat makes one impatient, especially with chronically late friends.

An hour after Dick should have arrived, Barbara tried calling his phone, leaving a polite, but short voicemail. Forty-five minutes later when still all she could get was voicemail, she tried his Bat-comm. When he didn’t answer that, she tried his League-issued comm. When that wasn’t answered, she wheeled over to her work console and pulled up their locations; both comms and his phone read Blüdhaven. Frowning, she opened up Grayson-cam and began a search through his apartment. With each empty room she found, her grimace tightened. She growled and opened up the comm link to the Cave.

“Oracle calling Batcave.”

Ten seconds later, a reply came through. “Red Robin here. What’s the situation, Oracle?”

“Dick’s missing.”

There was a few seconds of silence before a screen popped up in the corner and Tim stared at her with wide eyes, his cowl down. “What do you mean by missing?”

“He was supposed to meet me almost two hours ago and he never showed. I can’t get him on his phone or either comm and they all go through to his place, but when I checked his apartment, it’s empty.” She patched through the feed of Dick’s apartment. “No signs of a fight, barely even a sign he got dressed. I thought if he was anywhere other than here or on his way, he’d be with you.”

Tim shook his head. “He hasn’t been here that I know of. The system doesn’t show he’s checked in on the alarms today on the Cave or the house. Did you check his suit?”

“Still in his closet.”

“What about the Night Bike?”

“In the garage.” Barbara bit back a noise of frustration and pressed her lips together. “Tim, unless you really know of some tracker that _I_ don’t know about, we’re gonna need to call in some physical searchers.”

Tim frowned. “Yeah. I don’t... Should we tell _him_ yet, or wait and see what we can find?”

“He’s not going to take it well either way,” she said. “Let’s wait till we have a little more idea what we’re–” A beep from Dick’s apartment drew her attention. “Hang on. Dick just got a text.” She routed the message over to her computer, popping it up on the screen so they could both read it.

_Hey Springbird! I keep thinking about that chili dog place you mentioned. Want to grab dinner? My treat! :) –Clark_

Barbara raised an eyebrow. “Well, I think we have our searcher. Want to stay on the line, Tim?”

“Yeah, of course.”

Nodding, Barbara opened up a channel for the three of them. “Oracle to Superman, regarding Nightwing.”

There was a rush of air and suddenly he was standing behind her. “Is he all right?”

Barbara grunted and reached over to deactivate the alarms just as they started to go off. “Remind me to get Kara over here to calibrate those for super speed.”

“Sorry.” He winced apologetically, but his expression quickly faded to one more serious. “Do you know where Dick is? I can’t hear his heartbeat.”

Barbara exchanged a look with Tim. “You can’t hear his...”

Tim leaned forward, his face getting larger in the monitor. “What does that mean? Like he’s not in range? Do you think he’s–?” He cut himself off, but his meaning was clear from the wild look in his eyes.

“I don’t know what it means,” Clark said, looking between the two of them. “I didn’t hear anything to alert me of danger, but I tried to hear him and I can’t find him. I can hear yours, Bruce’s, Diana’s, but not Dick’s.”

Barbara inhaled sharply and brought up the feed from Dick’s apartment. “We don’t know where he is either. We were going to ask you to look for him.”

Clark nodded. “I can start looking for him now, but if he really is missing, we need to tell Bruce.”

“I know,” Barbara said. “As soon as you get back to us, I’ll tell him.” She held the questioning look he gave her. “If you find Dick and he’s fine, there’s no reason to worry him before we have any information. If you don’t... then that’s what he’ll need to know.”

Clark looked over at Tim on the monitor. “I’ll let you know as soon as I can.” With a nod, he was gone in another rush of air.

Ten minutes later, a call came through on their comm. “Call Bruce. I think I’ve got something at Dick’s apartment, but it’s not him.”

Barbara looked over at Tim and hailed Bruce on the private Bat-channel. “Oracle to Batman. We have an emergency.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for how late and short this chapter is. I've been distracted with other projects lately. If I can't get it out quicker, I'll try to make the next chapter longer to make up for it. Thanks for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> Well, as you can see, even though the story's focused around Dick, he's not exactly going to be in it much. There's a lot more searching and sleuthing to be done before he's found again. After all, his dad is the World's Greatest Detective.


End file.
